Reserve a Launch for Your Satellite
Online? Rocket Lab Can Make it So (Source: GeekWire)
The CubeSat revolution has come to this: Now you can make an online
reservation for a nanosatellite launch almost as easily as booking a
flight from Seattle to Los Angeles. Rocket Lab unveiled its launch
booking system today at the annual SmallSat conference in Logan, Utah.
“It’s really about trying to break down the barriers and make space
more accessible,” Peter Beck, the company’s CEO, explained during a
GeekWire interview.

It’s one more small step toward turning the satellite business into a
turnkey operation for researchers, entrepreneurs, students and
Kickstarter-savvy enthusiasts. Seattle’s Spaceflight Industries already
provides a menu of launch services, organized by satellite size and
timing. Rocket Lab kicks it up a notch by letting potential customers
choose their spot, right down to selecting the “seat” for their
satellite.

The prices range from between $50,000 and $90,000 for a 1U CubeSat
(measuring 4 by 4 by 4 inches) to between $180,000 and $250,000 for a
3U satellite (4 by 4 by 12 inches). Where the price falls within those
ranges will depend on the available space and the demand. “As it comes
closer to a flight, if we’re having trouble filling seats, we may
discount those flights to make sure they’re full,” Beck said. “It’s
very similar to an airline.” (8/10)

Russia to Conduct Simulated Flight
Program to Moon, Mars Over 4 Years (Source: Space Daily)
Russia will conduct a series of international experiments with
simulated flights to the Moon, Mars and other planets between 2016 and
2020, the first deputy head of the Institute of Biomedical Problems
said. Oleg Orlov said that the new experiments would include a mixture
of sexes for the crews, as opposed to the previous Mars-500 and
Luna-2015 simulations.

According to the institute's plans, two 14-day experiments will be
conducted in 2016-2017, as well as a 4-month simulated flight in 2017.
An 8-month experiment will be held in 2018, and in 2019-2020, there
will be a 12-month experimental simulated flight. (8/10)

Cosmonauts Collect Exterior Residue
Samples During ISS Spacewalk (Source: SPACErePORT)
During today's spacewalks outside the International Space Station,
Russian cosmonauts collected residue from the exterior surfaces of the
orbiting laboratory. Why? Last year Russian sources announced that
"traces of terrestrial sea plankton were on the spacecraft’s exterior."

“Results of the experiment are absolutely unique. We have found traces
of sea plankton and microscopic particles on the illuminator surface.
This should be studied further,” Solovyev told ITAR-TASS. “I’m not sure
where all the sea-plankton talk is coming from,” said NASA spokesman
Dan Huot at the time. Click here.
(8/10)

NASA Just Found Another Super-Earth,
But It's Stunning To Hear How Close It Is (Source: Expanse)
There's been a lot of talk about Super-Earths lately, with Kepler
recently finding Earth's "older cousin," but this one is notable for an
entirely different reason. At just 21 lightyears away, HD 219134b is
the nearest known rocky planet beyond our solar system. In a recent
press release from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA called the
planet "a potential gold mine of science data."

NASA notes that the planet can't be seen directly, with your eyes or a
telescope — but its host star is clearly visible at night. If the
clouds are playing nice, you shouldn't have much of a problem finding
it tonight. It's located near the North Star, in the Cassiopeia
constellation. You're not crazy for wondering how they found it without
being able to see it directly. They were able to confirm its existence
by making observations through the Spitzer Space Telescope, taking note
of how it transits its star. Michael Werner said that "this exoplanet
will be one of the most studied for decades to come." (8/6)

Trump Aims to Launch Tourists Into
Space (Source: The Times)
Alan Shepard, the Apollo 14 astronaut, hit a golf ball on the Moon, but
space tourists of the future could get the chance to practise their
swing before lift-off under plans being put forward by Donald Trump.
The billionaire tycoon and Republican presidential hopeful wants to
link his luxury golf resort at Turnberry to proposals for Prestwick
airport to become the UK’s space tourism hub. A consortium has lodged a
bid in which Trump Turnberry and its five-star hotel would become the
official hospitality partner for space-bound tourists departing from
Prestwick. (8/10)

What Space Exploration says About
Europe (Source: Guardian)
Look for the moment beyond the sordid argument about Greek debt, the
mean-spirited management of the refugee confrontations in Calais, the
murderous bitterness in Ukraine. Forget the grotesque posturing of
would-be Republican candidates in the US. Far away – more than 102m
miles away but moving very fast – the European space probe Rosetta is
escorting comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on its journey to perihelion,
its closest approach to the sun. Meanwhile, even further away, a US
space probe called New Horizons, traveling at 34,000 mph, has already
sped past what has traditionally been considered the ninth planet,
Pluto, and its moon Charon.

Each achievement represents a triumph for far-sighted cooperation and
intellectual generosity. To make these missions happen, researchers had
to develop and perfect technologies from which medicine and industry
will benefit – and in some cases do so already – but nobody at the time
thought a lot about of patents, or royalties to come.

Both are exemplars of open and generous partnership, and scientists and
politicians and civil servants from Russia and America, Ukraine and
Greece, France, Britain and many other nations can decently claim
credit. Rosetta is a gleaming instance of what Europe collectively can
do so well, while Calais and the Greek debt crisis are sorry examples
of what it fails to do well. Each mission will enter the history books
as a triumph. All of which is more than can be said for the bickering
and frustration in Brussels, Berlin and Athens, at border posts on
either side of the Channel, or in the corridors of power in Kiev and
Moscow. (8/10)

Moving Exhibit Pays Tribute to Lost
Space Shuttles’ Crews (Source: Science News)
With the blessings of all 14 families of lost astronauts, a new
memorial to the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters opened
in June at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The permanent exhibit
includes the first pieces of shuttle wreckage ever on public display,
but fittingly focuses more on the lives lost.

“Forever Remembered” is housed inside the space center’s new $100
million exhibit about the space shuttle Atlantis. Below the nose of the
intact shuttle, visitors enter a hall lit by tributes to each astronaut
from the lost missions, those from Challenger on the left and Columbia
on the right. Each display includes glimpses of the astronaut’s life.
Items include plans for remodeling the home of Challenger pilot Michael
Smith and a recovered page in Hebrew from the Columbia flight journal
of Ilan Ramon, a payload specialist and the first Israeli astronaut.
(8/10)